If the 27 Club didn't exist: What your favorite musicians would be up to now

Despite the fact that the BMJ has statistically proven that musicians don't have a higher risk of dying at the age of 27 than at any other age, the 27 Club is a popular term for musicians and artists who died before their time - usually due to accidents, drugs or alcohol. Many of these musicians are pioneers of their genre who are just rising to fame before their time is cut short.

While the list of 27 Club members is extensive, the most notably cited musicians included are Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse. While we can always harp on what these people accomplished in their time on Earth, we're going to discuss what they might be up to today if they were still here.

1

Jimi Hendrix

Anyone who's watched old footage of interviews with Jimi Hendrix can tell that he was a super down-to-earth guy. If he were still alive, he wouldn't have changed. He loved fusing genres together, mixing elements of blues and hard rock with the psychedelic trends of the late '60s. Today, he'd probably collaborate with a variety of artists, especially mainstream bluesy acts who have taken inspiration from his music, like Jack White. Hendrix still liked to party, though, so it wouldn't be surprising if he made appearances at festivals like Electric Forest. He still wouldn't have purchased a left-handed guitar, though.

Jim Morrison

Jim Morrison had a reputation in the music industry as being a bit of a diva. This would turn out to just be a phase he went through while dealing with being regarded as a sex symbol and making more money than he ever had before. Though he was a great lyricist and singer, Morrison would determine that his passion truly lied with philosophy and literature and try his hand at writing novels instead. Influenced by writers like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, he would inadvertently start a second wave of Beat writing in the early '80s that he would go on to teach at Wesleyan University. There, he'd also meet his wife who was 30-years his junior.

Janis Joplin

Though Joplin loves performing, she would decide that she was over the high-profile lifestyle of a popular musician by the time she was in her early 30s. She'd buy a modest home in Chula Vista, Texas with plenty of land for an organic garden and her dogs to run around. Through she wouldn't particularly enjoy the mainstream music of the '80s, she would begin missing the music industry and build a recording studio on her property, where up and coming folk artists would record. Joplin would be pretty private about her life, but every once in a while, she would get some publicity over her opinion of something a politician did or said.

Kurt Cobain

It's no secret that Kurt Cobain hated the media attention he got when he was in Nirvana. However, had he lived into the late '90s, that attention would have been fleeting as Nirvana amicably parted ways. He and Courtney Love would start a music duo that would turn out to be short-lived when they realized it interfered with their family time. In the 2000s, Cobain would decide to write a book about his struggle with depression and end up being a champion for mental health treatment and representation. Once in a while Cobain would make an appearance on a Foo Fighters record, though, and grunge fans would be stoked about it.

Amy Winehouse

Had she had the opportunity to record more than two albums, Amy Winehouse would have stayed true to her sound. Despite some push from her label to make her next record a little poppier and more accessible, she wouldn't budge. With those royalties, Winehouse would also open a small cabaret bar in her hometown in England under a pseudonym, so it wouldn't become a tourist attraction. However, after she and Adele would be spotted there celebrating Adele's 30th birthday, word would get out that Winehouse was the owner and there would be a line around the block every weekend.